


Chalk Talk

by morrysillusion



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Not Underage, professor/student
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-03-09 12:50:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18917377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrysillusion/pseuds/morrysillusion
Summary: High school wasn't easy and college is no better. He couldn't focus, he was learning just as little as before... how would he make it to his dream jobs if his brain was jumping from one thing to the next? He couldn't do anything about it before and he doubted anyone would take him seriously in college.However, as he pushes through his classes a particular professor seems to be keeping an eye on him, if anything Sonic assumes the guy just thinks he annoying and dumb. But, that professor might be the push he needs- in more than one way.





	1. Fall Break Hangover

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Wake Up Sonic](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/483736) by animegirl300. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE 5/25/19:  
> did not think this was gonna get views so quickly. i did not proof read my chapter at all upon posting and i just fixed grammar mistakes and whatnot!

The noise of furious tapping against a smartphone’s screen sounded out of time with the loud alarm emitting from it. Under the sheets came a groan as the finger failed to hit the “stop” button, so the groggy face of a blue hedgehog popped out to grab the phone and shut it up immediately. After grabbing his phone, his arm went limp and the hedgehog slumped out of his bed and onto the floor. His half-lidded gaze stared at the ceiling as he took his time in finding the energy to get up. 

“Sonic, are you up yet?” A voice past the door shouted frantically, the tapping of feet confirming that they were in a hurry for...something. “I’m leaving now because I’m gonna let myself end up late!!”  
The footsteps became more distant. “Bye, Sonic!”  
A door further away opened and quickly shut with the sound of a clicking latch. 

Sonic sat up on the floor and looked at the time on his phone. Then he shrugged carelessly. _I can get there fast enough…_ He threw his blanket off and sped off shower at literal sonic speeds. As nice and the warm water felt, he knew he couldn’t let it trap him too, not like his had bed just tried to moments before, so he turned it off in just minutes and shook off all the excess water like a dog. Just as swiftly as he went in, Sonic left the bathroom and rushed into the pile of clothes at the foot of his bed to throw on some baggy sweatshirt that went decently past his hips. Maybe it was dirty, had some used tissues in the pockets...but Sonic had no time for that!

Finally flinging his bag around his shoulder, full of folders and notebooks, Sonic ran off to the kitchen to grab a protein bar as his breakfast. Well, he only took one bite before spitting the gross thing out and deciding it was more worth it to just leave. He went and opened the heavy front door, stepping out and locking it with a key behind him. Sonic pulled his phone out once more to check the time- it was 8:24 am- he needed to be there at 8:30 am. _Oh yeah, I have enough time._ He smirked and readied himself for a moment, before bursting off the front step with his right foot. No need to care about being late when you’d make it to the school in less than a few minutes on your feet. 

Within in a moment the blue blur came to a screeching halt in front of the college’s student center. 8:30 am on the dot. Not far ahead Sonic saw the identity of the voice from outside his room from earlier- Tails- walking past the quad towards his class. In a blink, he caught up to his friend as they both were heading for the same place.  
“You know how easy it is for me to not be late, right?” There was a smug grin on Sonic’s face as he said that.  
Tails rolled his eyes playfully at the comment. “Sure but, why keep risking it??”  
“Because I’m _tired!”_ He was surprised the kid couldn’t understand his need for sleep. “Fall break just ended and I’m missing my two days of sleep more than ever now.”  
The two were at the door to their next class within moments, walking inside as other students started to settle and they waited for their professor.  
“Sonic… this is college. You have like two days where class starts at 3:00 pm, and you have no class on Fridays.” Tails added as the two them sat down at one of the long lab tables. “How are you STILL tired?”  
Sonic opened his mouth but nothing came out. Then he closed it. And he took a moment. “Well I just.. Run around all the time! Lots of energy is put into running, you know!”  
Tails gave him a _look_ in response, but showed an amused smile.

Time passed as the students waited and failed to find any professor entering the room. If they waited any longer, there was no reason to stay. Some students were already eager to bounce. As the clock reached the fifteen minute mark, the door to the classroom opened and someone walked in. Tall, dark, striking red stripes and hedgehog quills. The room was silent as no one seemed to recognize him, but he looked professional with his coat and bag that was full of papers. 

“Hello.” A deep voice came from the stranger that had entered the room. “Apologies for the late entry, things have been changed around here, as you can probably see.”  
The class stayed silent as they awaited an introduction.  
The person put his bag down on the desk and laid his coat over the office chair behind his desk. “My name is Shadow, I am your new chemistry professor. I was already teaching in this department, and your previous teacher had to leave last minute. So, I am teaching my usual classes along with your class as well for the rest of the semester.”  
There were small murmurs in the room as students questioned what happened with their previous professor.  
“Everything will be just as it was- Monday class is the same time and Wednesday labs are still at 3:00pm.” As Shadow spoke, he turned on the projector with a remote and sat down at his desktop to pull up a slideshow. “I will be teaching where your professor left off and then will continue with my own regular plans I have for the rest of my classes.”  
Sonic found himself staring out the window as the professor went on. Nothing that interesting to him- some new guy, probably more boring than the last. The noise around him became muddy as he dozed off, hardly noticing the sound of multiple students pulling open note taking material and textbooks. As Sonic slowly became more aware of how long he was distracted from the lecture, he suddenly became aware of a pair of eyes pointed directly at him- as he sat there with no notebook out, no pencil, and ignoring the book Tails had opened to his right. He took his gaze away from the outdoors and met the searing gaze of a professor looking straight at him. Then he glanced to the book, and the rest of the class that were already taking notes based on the slideshow being projected. _Oh._ Sonic silently pulled out his notebook and a pencil, awkwardly looking away from Shadow as he hoped he wasn’t glaring at him for what Sonic knew he probably was. 

Sonic’s pencil slowly came to a stop as he finished writing up one of the last notes for the class. Well, all of one page… of notes. Yeah, he didn’t get much down. But he couldn’t blame himself, everything else but class work seemed to be more interesting to him today, or well, any other day for that matter actually. He most certainly was already tired of chemistry- he flunked it twice in high school and was required to take it in college to get his degree. So technically, he had seen it all already and he was kind of tired of it. Sliding his notebook into his bag, the hedgehog left his seat followed his friend out the door. Shadow didn’t look up as Sonic left. 

Sonic parted ways with Tails as they headed off to different 11:00 am classes for the day- Tails off to his Information Security class and Sonic simply heading for a math class, yet another he needed to catch up with after high school. Part of him really wanted to take college seriously, he had a passion- but he just wasn’t keeping up grade wise… and grades mattered more than just passion.


	2. Helping Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO going into this i didn't have a huge "plan" but i think i have an idea.  
> but my idea is... do a number of chapters based on the relationship, building up to it. after that the next chapters in this verse will be one shots of different things going on with them. they will still be under this fanfic "chalk talk" but i dont have a huge overarching story planned, it will be these chapters and then other scenarios when i have ideas. it may eventually go somewhere else but for now its just a chill thing
> 
> ALSOOOO i just beat Team Sonic Racing and i have ideas to writing some fics based in the racing world! so if youre interested definitely stick around for my other things :)

Another class done, no better than the last. Sonic exhaustedly headed down the hall and through two large swinging doors, into the cafeteria. He scanned the large room, looking for a sign of any friend, until he locked eyes with Tails, who was also sitting with a familiar red echidna. He walked right on over with a wave and the two greeted him back as he sat down.

“Sonic! I didn’t catch you before classes, were you late again?” The echidna said after Sonic said hello.  
Sonic gave a short laugh. “You know I’m never late, Knuckles.”  
“..Getting on campus a second after classes starts isn’t necessarily on time either.”  
“Still-- not late!” He leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed, a smug looked that said he truly did not think there was any issue with his careless routine.  
Knuckles simply rolled his eyes as Tails watch the conversation, having already been through the same basic exchange earlier.

After a bit of casual chatter Tails and Sonic got up to go and buy food, as Knuckles already had something of his own. Sonic eyed the donuts at the entrance to the store, but always decided against it- at this hour they were almost always going to be stale. He got something decently healthy instead— a boxed sandwich and a small juice. He wasn’t in the mood to sit in line for anything, mostly with this being the busier hour for lunch. Sonic walked up to the counter and paid, waiting for Tails outside the exit so they could walk back to their table together.

As they returned, Tails spoke up. “Hey, uh, Sonic.. I know you didn’t get that many notes today in chemistry- if you want you can copy mine down.” Tails cautiously brought up the topic as he knew it was awkward to point out the fact sonic spaced for a _good_ majority for the period.  
Sonic paused for a moment as he felt a tinge if embarrassment grow at the reminder. “Oh! I don’t know.. it’s fine. Not like I need them that bad.”  
“Actually,” Tails said slowly, “The next test is open notes.. it would probably help to have more written!”  
Sonic felt a twist in his chest when Tails mentioned a test. “When’s the next test?”  
The two of them made it back to their table and sat down with Knuckles again.  
“It’s next Monday.” Tails popped open the top of his soda can. “It’s the mid-semester test.”

Sonic ate his food slowly as his brain gears worked to process that information. The anxiety was clogging it all up, and he was a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out how the hell he would understand anything on the test by next week. All of his inside processing was coming out as pure dissociation on the outside though. He broke his train of thought when his eye caught a familiar figure walking into the cafeteria store- Shadow, their new professor. His eyes followed as Shadow simply left with a drink of some kind and went out the hall, likely back to his class room. He hardly knew the guy from just today, but the glare he had at Sonic during class did not give him a positive impression… even if it was something any teacher would glare at him for.

“...Sonic.”  
Again he was brought back into the conversation when he heard genuine concern in Tails’ voice.  
“Huh?” Sonic glanced back at him, spacey. Even Knuckles had a look that said he knew what Tails was going to say.  
“You’re not… doing well in chemistry are you..”  
Sonic’s ears fell back and he looked away awkwardly, as his he was trying to avoid hearing the things Tails said. “I don’t know if I’d say..that… it’s not my favorite class, but I’m not _trying_ to do..badly…”  
Tails looked a bit disappointed with Sonic’s attempt to sound like he didn’t care about it. He couldn’t tell if that was true, or Sonic was just trying to avoid his feelings about it. Tails was sure it was the latter though.  
“Talk to the Professor maybe?” Tails asked after taking a bite of his own food. “I’d love to help as usual but, I’m just too busy trying to finish my high school classes too.”  
“..Professor Shadow?” He cringed slightly at not only the thought of being tutored, but the thought of approaching Shadow in any way after the first impression he gave. “Maybe…”  
Knuckles piped up as he bundled his food trash into a ball. “Eh, I think his last class chemistry today ends at 7:00 pm, that when I have him. if you want to catch him then.”

Knuckles grabbed his own stuff and said goodbye as his next class was sooner than theirs. Tails also gave a farewell as he needed to print something at the library before his next classes, and reminded Sonic that he could copy his notes when they got back to their dorms later. As he was left alone, Sonic decided he might as well wander aimlessly before he had to go off to class again. He tossed his minimal leftovers into the trash as he headed out the door, into the bright and sunny daylight. It almost hurt to look around as his eyes adjusted for a moment. Many students were still wandering between classes and taking their breaks, he didn’t immediately recognize any other friends either so decided to head towards the grassy quad. It made him happy to just be in the daylight, in a space busy with other students- everything felt simple and nice.

It was an easy distraction to the feelings he was having earlier. As Sonic walked down a curving path, he strayed from the pavement and onto the grass hill beside him. He dropped his bag down on the lush green and plopped himself down. Sonic leaned into the hill, using his bag as a sort of pillow as he laid back on the grass. But something in the back of his brain was trying to nudge those negative feelings back into the front, as staring up at the blue sky suddenly wasn’t as distracting after a while. He sighed and turned over on his side, he let himself just feel the cool grass and soft breeze. Sonic wasn’t the type to get so caught up in his head… and as he did his best to keep his mind off of it, a tiredness came over him. He didn’t fight it, maybe trying to take a nap was his best option right now- at least he wouldn’t be awake and in his brain until his next class started.

\---

There was a quick feeling of panic in his chest as Sonic’s eyes suddenly opened- he had accepted the nap that his brain wanted, but bolted awake when his subconscious mind was telling him he still had a class to attend. He sat up immediately and pulled out his phone to look at the time. He groaned as he saw it was already well past the time of his last class, it ended at 7:30pm and there wasn’t enough time left to make it seem worth it to pop in. If anything he really did not want to walk in that late anyways, having everyone see him arrive so horribly late. _I’ll just...email the teacher about anything I missed._ Sonic grabbed his backpack and brushed off any of the grass sticking to his sweatshirt. Before he thought about heading to the dorm, he did remember Knuckles mentioning that around this time, Shadow had his last class and was free to talk to. His day was already kind of sucky, and admitting to his teacher that he sucked at the class and needed help wasn’t...the first thing he wanted to do. But it sucked, and maybe this would turn into one positive for the day, by doing something helpful for his future self.

It was getting dark as he headed for the Science hall, so he hoped the interaction would be quick and he’d get out before the cold of night settled. The hallways were much more empty as a majority of classes were wrapping up at this hour and as Sonic arrived in front of the door from the start of his day, he check his phone to make sure whether or not the class had ended. He was a little early, and simply waited until students started walking out of the door, indicating he could go in without intruding on the class. Sonic caught the door as someone left and headed inside. A few students were sticking around, likely to ask question about the class too. As he went to wait by one of the desks, Knuckles passed by and he gave him a smile before he walked out the door behind others. He felt a tinge of awkwardness. For some reason he just didn’t like knowing that people knew he needed...help. He thought he was so good at so many things, he did so much on his own! Nobody thought he was dumb or incapable of what he wanted to do. He was fast, he was helpful, he’d volunteer for the good of others all the time- he could be a superhero if he wanted! But that idea felt impossible if people knew full well he wasn’t...smart, he wasn’t a genius, he wouldn’t be able to pursue things if he didn’t do a little bit better than his usual during school.

Not much time passed before the other students asked what they needed and left, it was only a few so Sonic hoped he wouldn’t be taking up any of the professor’s time. He was the only one standing there, and while he didn’t feel _anxiety_ he just...had never approached a professor like this before so….he didn’t make a move for a moment, until Shadow looked from his paperwork and up at him.

“Hello, Sonic- right? What do you need?”  
Sonic stepped up to the desk, his hands still clasped around his backpack straps. “Hey professor, I just came by because uhhh. Well,” He paused and let out a breath, “I am not sure I am prepared for this mid-semester test...I guess.”  
He let himself pause again, and Shadow did not intend to interrupt.  
He let the words fall out as quickly as possible so he wouldn’t keep thinking before he spoke. “...I don’t think I am doing well in this class and I may have fallen behind too much to catch up. I wanted to ask if there was any way I could get extra..help? If that’s something you can do...”  
Shadow took a moment and nodded respectfully. “Alright, well I appreciate you telling me this. I don’t know your previous professor’s experience with you so… This is what I can suggest-” He put his hands together and looked directly at Sonic. “You will take the test on Monday, I will not do any sort of tutoring until then. Understand this- I want to just see what you know, how much you seem to care about the test you’re taking, and how much you don’t know.”  
While Sonic was happy he wasn’t rejected, he felt a building anxiety at the idea of having to just take a test he was positive he would fail. “But-- what if i don’t pass? That just gonna stay on my grade??”  
“No worries,” Shadow quickly stopped the anxious hedgehog. “If you start tutoring I will let you retake the test just fine. I understand, it is a big part of the grade.”  
While still a bit buzzed with anxiety, Sonic replied. “Alright… sounds good then..!”

__Before Shadow turned back to the work he had left he said, “Just know this… I don’t care about students who don’t care. Disprove your behavior from this morning and I’m sure I can help you out.”_ _


	3. Trials and Tribulations

Awaking was easy, it was a good night’s rest. Hanging out with friends during the weekend left his mind happily clear. However the calming daze of a good night’s rest faded as he remembered it was monday. Monday, school day… Monday… _test_ day. Before Sonic’s sleepy face could emote this realization, his chest filled with a feeling of deep apprehension. But the anxiety had awoken him fully and he was tossing his covers off as he knew there was nothing else he could do than face what was ahead. Sonic sped through his morning routine, quite on time, and headed off to his classes. 

 

As Sonic walked to his Chemistry class with Tails, he hardly let the building anxiety behind him become obvious- but he was no doubt less attentive to his friend than usual. They walked through the door, and Sonic felt like he had to force himself to not look in Shadow’s direction… something just felt so awkward to him, asking for help and admitting he messed up this semester. He knew full well Shadow thought nothing much of it, no energy radiated off of the professor. As Sonic sat down, scantrons were being passed down the rows of tables for the test, along with the accompanying test packet. He barely heard the professor telling the students they could start, as Sonic felt like the air around him was vibrating. As if his senses were so hyper aware, he could feel it himself.. And as he flipped open his packet to answer the first question, there was hardly any focus on his actions as he did so. Look at the clock mounted on the wall. What time is it? _Oh wait, class only just started a minute ago, its 8:45am_ . Check it a second later, _just to make sure_ . Is there anything interesting going on outside the window? Is the sun still up? _Of course it is, it's 9am_ . Glance at the clock again to see if you were right about it being 9am. _It is 9am- huh, fifteen minutes passed quickly_ …

 

Looking back at the test, realizing his distraction, Sonic blinked hard and actually went to answer what was on the page. He read over the simple sentence multiple times, the wordings floating past his brain as if he was illiterate. His eyes went over it three times again, it just wasn’t sticking in his brain. At first he didn’t realize it, but then he thought about the time again- he glanced at the clock. It only made him frustrated, seeing that for some odd reason he couldn’t comprehend the question. Was he really that stupid? That he couldn’t even read a question? His concern over how much time he had left was becoming too much, so he took the two details he could get from the question and answered with what seemed to also be related to those details. Putting down one answer felt nice- even though he couldn’t decide if he understood what he put, Sonic at least felt a bit more confident about continuing. Thinking he could push his distraction away now, Sonic continued with the questions ahead. As he went though, the information of each question kinda went past right past him as he read like before, but he started to assume he just knew the info decently well as he picked answers that didn’t feel wrong. At least, he didn’t feel any real struggle with the questions so… that must be good, right?

 

Sooner than he thought, Sonic had finished the 40 question test in good time. As he went up to turn in the papers, he did notice a pretty good number of students were still working- and he had finished not longer after Tails, even. He shrugged off that detail, and noticed Shadow glanced up at him as he turned in his test. A little odd, maybe he was surprised by how fast Sonic finished? Without thinking too much about it, Sonic returned to his seat and lazed around as other students continued to finish their tests. Normally they could just leave, but he decided he would stay in case the professor was going to tell him about his test. 

 

Time continued and as everyone wrapped up their tests, ready to leave, Sonic lagged behind Tails who was ready to head out the door. At first he was..nervous about approaching the professor, even though he knew he didn’t have his test scores yet. As other spilled out of the classroom door, Sonic approached his desk as the professor put away the scantrons and packets. 

Before Sonic found what to say, the professor glanced at him from the side. “You finished quite fast.”

He said it so simply that Sonic couldn’t tell if he was surprised or unamused. 

“At that speed, did you remember more than you thought?”

Shadow’s question hit Sonic’s blank face as flatly as the questions he read on his test earlier. “I...don’t know... I think so?” 

Shadow didn’t really respond to that, but added, “Well. You can see your score on the online campus portal site probably late tonight.” The professor snapped a rubber band around the scantrons and put it into a folder. “If you have time, we can talk about it tomorrow. I don’t have class to teach from 3:00pm to 5:00pm.”

 

Sonic gave a short ‘alright’ before heading out the door. As he stepped into the hallway he noticed his heart beating nervously- but he couldn’t tell if that was him feeling nervous around the stern and intimidating professor, or the fact that he may be realizing he didn’t know a single thing on that test he took. 

 

* * *

 

 

The hallways were dull and lifeless, only filled with the bright fluorescent lights dotted along the tiled ceiling. At the hour of 10:00pm Shadow found himself tiredly waiting for the last of the scantrons of the day to slide through the machine so he could upload their scores onto the portal. As the last one popped out, Shadow unplugged the USB drive plugged into the scanner and gathered up the answer sheets to put back in his folders. As he grabbed his heavy coat from off the back of the chair, the professor slid the drive into his coat pocket before heading out the door. It was dark as he went into the open and the parking lot was pretty much empty at this hour. Shadow did not live too far from the school and often skated his way over each day unless he needed to bring more for the classes that day. 

 

Shadow swiftly went off along the sidewalks, past two intersection and off to the right. The college buildings had faded and the sidelines were filled with small strip malls and stores on one side and apartments on the other side. The black hedgehog slowed down as he reached one building- was more of a condo sort of setup than a tiny apartment. A tall pale blue building where the house part sat on top of a garage, stairs leading up to the front door. With a click and turn of a key, the front door was pushed open and Shadow walked inside. A dim lamp turned on automatically and slowly brought some life to the seemingly well kept and organized home of the professor. He slid his bag off from his shoulder and let it slump to the ground next to a coffee table, opening it up to pull out a small laptop. Shadow pressed on the power button as he lazily went over to the couch, placing it on his lap. 

 

It did not take him long to load up the USB and the campus portal site as well. Luckily the process wouldn’t be horribly tedious, as he was able to upload the scanned information as a spreadsheet and automatically import that to the website. A few clicks in and the deed was done. As he quickly scanned through with his own eyes to make sure nothing looked wrong, his eyes went back to the name Sonic- right, Sonic’s test score. He knew he could not believe the boy had finished quickly because he knew the answers, and that theory was proven with his score. He got a 64%, and it didn’t surprise Shadow. He didn’t know Sonic well enough to judge if he just did not care about the test or if he really just struggled to learn, but Shadow could tell at the start Sonic was having trouble paying attention.. And he could honestly assume that the answers Sonic did get right were simply lucky guesses. But he was surprised the hedgehog still rushed through the test feeling like he did things pretty okay, when he didn't. Shadow had offered to help him, so he would do that. But he wondered exactly what problem he would be solving along the way, and exactly how much time he would have to dedicate to him if he truly wanted to make a difference...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heya! sorry for the wait and super late posting time. i have an internship rn and its taking up my time so i may be slow for the rest of the summer!
> 
> i am 100% open to some mild critique (pls dont judge my grammar or spelling too much im dyslexic- i still need to proof read this as of posting) like, if things seem too slow and i should stop describing loads of little details. i probably wont write more than 1k-2k words per chapter but lemme know your thoughts! i switched to shadow's POV at the end as to make the discovery of sonic's test score a bit more interesting, with commentary from shadow on his feelings about sonic- for example...  
> also i went hard on the ADHD stuff with sonic here, specifically describing my own personal issues i had during school :)

**Author's Note:**

> [ This fanfiction is based off one by Animegirl300, “Wake up Sonic”, I read it ages ago and barely remember it but I just remember liking it and looking back at it now haha… I think its nostalgic and funny, and it kinda just made me wanna write the general concept myself? So here i am.  
> I am NOT straight up copying the original, just using the general college student/professor set up. If the author finds this and has a problem i will alter it/take it down. Only concept I’m using are Shadow being a professor, teaching chemistry, and Shadow tutoring Sonic later- some general themes may come up but they’re quite tropey anyways. Some plot structure in the start may be similar but it all will go in a different direction. It should be clear Sonic is 22 (kept failing high school) and Shadow is like 26-29? I am trying to write this more realistically to how actual college works. This is super-modern-AU as i like to imagine them wearing clothes to some extent n all the super fiction villains/powers/etc are not are prevalent. ]
> 
> WARNING - at this moment i can't say for sure if this story will become NSFW/contain sex scenes. Please follow with caution.  
> [ Also, i plan to keep chapter at least 1k words but dont plan to work hard to make them longer. but if you like what i am doing please let me know, itll make me prioritize writing chapters more. ]


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